The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said the Armenian government risks inflicting “irreparable damage” on bilateral relations and putting the South Caucasus country’s security and economic development at serious risk.
Amid mounting tensions with Moscow, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian announced on Tuesday that his government has formally told the Russians to vacate Zvartnots by August 1. He said Armenian immigration authorities now have the capacity to carry out all border controls there “without the help of the Russian side.”
Zakharova said Yerevan sent such a notification to the commanders of the Russian border guards in Armenia “against the backdrop of a whole series of unfriendly steps” towards Moscow.
“This initiative hardly corresponds to the interests of the security of Armenia and its citizens, especially given the tasks that Russian and Armenian border guards have effectively performed shoulder to shoulder for many years,” she told a news briefing in Moscow.
Zakharova also denounced Armenian leaders’ “counterproductive and at times offensive rhetoric” regarding the CSTO and what she described as their unwillingness to embark on a “dialogue” with Russia and other ex-Soviet states making up the Russian-led military alliance.
“Continuing Yerevan’s current course could ultimately cause irreparable damage to our allied relations, create serious risks for the sovereignty of the republic, completely destroy effective mechanisms for ensuring the country’s security, and affect prospects for its steady socioeconomic development,” she warned.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov similarly said early this month that Moscow will seriously “reconsider” its relationship with Yerevan if the latter keeps drifting away from its traditional ally and aligning with the West.
Pashinian on Tuesday reiterated his threats to pull Armenia out of the CSTO unless the bloc pledges to defend it against foreign aggression. He earlier announced a de facto “freezing” of the country’s membership of the CSTO.
In what has been a pattern in recent months, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov again reacted more cautiously to Pashinian’s latest comments than the Foreign Ministry in Moscow.
“It’s obvious that there is a lot of work ahead and we need contacts with our Armenian partners both within the CSTO and at the bilateral level,” Peskov told Russian media.